world vision and contraception?
Question from Daniel Gregoire on 8/24/2005:

Dear Judie,
You recently answered a question about World Vision promoting contraception with the following.

"World Vision does support contraception. One example is at http://www.wvi.org/wvi/archives/asia/afghanistan.htm and there are many more."

Did I miss something?
I checked the collection of articles on this quoted website and found no mention of contraception anywhere. There was, however, a couple of aricles on training women as midwives for promoting the health of mother and child before, during and after childbirth. It all seemed very charitable to me.

The articles also left me with the impression that the cultural roles and expectations of Afghan women would make it very hard (and possibly dangerous?) to instruct them in something like contraception, anyways.

Sincerely,
Daniel

Answer by Judie Brown on 8/25/2005:

Dear Daniel

In the report, you will find the following statement:

"For women, the World Vision health centre will offer comprehensive reproductive health services. This, too, is a major lifesaving development: The average number of women in Afghanistan who die in pregnancy is 16 per 1,000 (respective rates in Canada and the United States are 6 and 7 women per 100,000). "

This is a statement about offering contraception. What are reproductive health services? They include, as defined by the UN, abortion, contraception and sterilization.